This is the Ted Lasso-inspired Fake Marriage romance I never knew I needed. I just...I thought When Grumpy Met Sunshine was the top tier of "two dummies in love but they don't know it yet," and yet here I am, squealing and kicking my feet AGAIN.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the advance reader copy of My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein.

Connie and Beck are neighbors and she ends up posing as his fake wife. Their arrangement culminates in both of them attending a writing retreat together. Their fake spouse arrangement and forced proximity lead these two to need to confront their misunderstandings, approaches toward relationships, and their feelings toward each other.

I found Beck to be endearing and enjoyed him throughout the story. This story is definitely for someone who enjoys misunderstandings, fake relationship, forced proximity, and there’s only one bed tropes. I felt the story really picks up once they get to the writing retreat. There were definitely moments once it reached that point that had me smiling big for these two.

This is definitely a book one can pick up for a quick and easy read with plenty of spice.

My Big Fat Fake Marriage by Charlotte Stein is an absolutely sweet novel of two neighbors who are the most unlikely of companions, but when he needs a fake wife, she steps up to help out and sparks fly! I thoroughly enjoyed the slow burn of this novel! Thank you to the author publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This one was not for me. I'm all for a cinnamon roll hero, but that's not what we had here. The MMC, Beck, gave Ned Flanders in the body of Peter "Sugar Bear" Wisdom vibes, and I couldn't get past it.

This one surprised me! I’ve never really been into cinnamon roll MMCs (I like mine morally gray and preferably with bat wings), but this was really sweet! Much spicier than I thought it would be considering how sweet and inexperienced Beck was. Connie really had her heart in the right place, but it was hard to read all the self deprecation happening for both of them. It took me out of the spice and the narrative, however the ending was super sweet and I love a good fake dating/marriage trope!

I enjoyed this book very much. I kept thinking as I was reading it that I could see it being turned into a movie. The characters have a lot of ways in which this could play out. Thank you for the opportunity to read it early!

A quirky, fun loving, misguided story that takes you on a sensual journey as Hazel and Beck find their way to each other and overcome each other's insecurities.

Thank you to Charlotte Stein, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Oh my heart! A fake dating / marriage of convenience with big burly cinnamon role MMC and a plus size FMC?! SIGN. ME. UP!

Our MMC (Beck) was EVERYTHING in this book. tenderhearted, kind, thoughtful, romantic...and take charge kind of man...YES PLEASE!

I enjoyed watching the self discovery journey of our FMC (Hazel) as well, her story line was one I think many women can relate to. Growing up feeling like you are "too much" of the wrong thing and hiding your true self from anyone who tries to get too close.

I would have loved to have gotten Beck's perspective in this book, I feel that would have really bumped the story up another level but as it was, this book was a cute, funny, and spicy rom-com that I'm sure will become the next social media sensation!

I will never get married unless Beck somehow stops being a fictional character. I am absolutely in love with him. He is the definition of a gentle giant. I love his and Hazel's dynamic so much. They both had amazing development, and the way they help each other through their personal arcs is so sweet and supportive and I don't have enough words for it.

This book was such an easy 5 stars for me. It's an adorable and spicy rom-com with great character development and writing. If you're a fan of fake relationships and only one bed, you'll love this book.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The book was delightful and humorous, with a steady pace that prevented me from setting it aside. I appreciated how the main characters were developed throughout the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I'm a fan of Charlotte Stein's books thus far - she writes the cutest grumpy/sunshiney tropes, with very sweet MC. I loved her most recent werewolf book, for example (go pick that one up! Cozy spice!)
This book didn't go over as well for me, primarily due to the fact that I didn't love our FMC's voice or her character quite as much. I completely understood and deeply feel that grossness that I associate with the "nice guy" phenomenon. But the way she reiterated it over and over again at the start, it almost felt too repetitive and as if she wasn't writing for what I presume is her audience - that is, youngish women reading romance who implicitly understand the men that she is referring to. It came to a point where I felt like this FMC was beyond grumpy and was just thinking horrible things about most of the people she met. I kind of feel like you can be a misanthrope and incredibly distrusting without being off-putting in this way? It was minor for me, primarily in the first half of the book - I guess the feeling I would describe is like being around a Debbie Downer, or like sort of just an exhausting character to read the POV of? Ultimately, I think the book, thought it did take its time, came around and because a cute romance that was worth reading and passing the time with.

Charlotte Stein can do no wrong, in my opinion. I absolutely adored My Big Fat Fake Marriage - and I LOVED the MMC. I really appreciate the recognition that not all romance readers was six foot seven alphaholes with rippling abs and a jawline made for the cover of Men's Health. Just fabulous all around!

I was a big fan of Charlotte Stein's last book (WHEN GRUMPY MET SUNSHINE) and I think this one just wasn't the one for me, I'm afraid. I am not one to shy away from tropes, but the fake marriage in this one (especially combined with the FMC's absolute distrust of all men) just wasn't hitting for me. I also didn't believe the chemistry until we were close to the end. And the MMC was like a cinnamon roll on steroids - you truly cannot believe how kind/dorky/etc this man is. I can suspend my disbelief a lot in romance novels, but our Beck was a bridge too far.

2 stars. I think there is certainly an audience for this one, it just wasn't me. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the ARC.

This is, very clear from the title, a story of not just fake dating, but fake marriage. There is a good reason for it, as there always is. Beck is a sweet cinnamon roll of a guy, wears bow ties, says things like shucks, loves science fiction. You know, the perfect sort of nerd. He is being harassed, at work by a macho man who doesn't believe he is married at all. (Well, he isn’t, but that's beside the point.)
When his neighbor, Connie, finds out that he is being harassed, she agrees to go to a writing retreat, which she was going to anyway, and pose as his wife, so he can stop being harassed.

Single bed, close quarters, the usual tropes, you know, but I clocked it, and they pine for each other until 75% into the novel. That is the longest I have seen a couple hold out. That is not to say there isn’t a lot of dirty thoughts along the way. It is a long slow burn.

If you like your love making behind closed doors, this is not the book for you. Not that this is super explicit, but it is explicit enough to get the idea, thank you. Through it all, though, Beck is the gentleman that we hope he would be.

Fun story, really. Good dialogue.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is coming out the 11th of March 2025.

This was a light read. They really didn't think one liked the other when they actually did, so being in a fake marriage worked out for them in the end.

I had a hard time getting through this book. While the fake dating/fake marriage trope is overdone I was hoping for a fresh story. The plot itself did feel fresh but the two main characters were not the greatest. I didn't feel anything for either of them, or between them. There was a lot of potential here but the book fell flat.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Sometimes you read a book and it just sort of hits you somewhere you didn't know existed, and that's what this book was for me. I read it, then immediately read it again. And again. Something about this story just gets me in all the right places, and even makes me want to write again. I loved it even more than When Grumpy Met Sunshine, and it's easily my favorite work from Stein thus far.

For sensitive readers, there are references to emotionally abusive parents, sexual assault, bullying, and trauma, and depictions of misogyny and graphic sexuality.

In My Big Fat Fake Marriage, Connie agrees to be her neighbor Beck's fake wife because he told his coworkers that he was married after being taunted by a bully at work. Connie and Beck then have to pretend to be married during a two week writers retreat. To make things worse, they are sharing a cabin with the bully and his wife so they really want to make their fake relationship as believable as possible.

I really wanted to love My Big Fat Fake Marriage especially since I enjoyed the previous book in this series so much. It has so many of of my favorite tropes in it: Fake relationship, only one bed and inexperienced male MC are just a few of them. The cinnamon roll hero Beck is too cute and Connie's arc is great as she learns her own worth. The sex scenes are hot too! But even with all this goodness, I still didn't enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped. I didn't really buy the relationship between Connie and Beck since it happened so quickly it was pretty close to instalove. It seemed like Connie and Beck fell in love because neither of them had ever been with anyone who treated them well rather than that they are really good together.

I'll definitely read more in this series but this one was not as good as I was hoping, probably because I enjoyed When Grumpy Met Sunshine so much.

I'm so sorry but I had to DNF this. I loved the concept but the main character got very jarring very quickly. As a woman attempting to date, I definitely understand being wary of men but this felt like it was taking it to concerning levels of paranoia that got pretty hard to read very quickly. Thank you for the early copy and I'm sorry this wasn't a good fit for me!

I didn’t really feel any chemistry between the two MC’s until the last 25% of the book, I really wanted to love this but even though it wasn’t for me I think many will love this book. I recommend checking it out if you like cinnamon roll boyfriends and the fake marriage trope.